One More Kill
by Aejavu
Summary: [WhatIf:InuKag] Don't think he knows what you're going to do. Don't run he will catch you. Don't cry he can smell your fear. It's just too bad you left the Tetsusaiga behind, isn't it...?
1. Prologue

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One More Kill

Prologue

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He thought that he could get rid of her –not by physical means because then she would never cease to haunt him, but in a way so that she would never return to his torn mind. It was useless though. There was no way he could completely purge her from his thoughts and that thought, in itself, drove him crazy and helped to feed his raging blood lust. The only way to distract himself from the memory of the taste of her, the smell of her horror, the memory of her pounding heart and her wide, mournful eyes was to kill.

At least that's what he told himself over and over again, a mantra like battle cry that seeped into his very soul –one more kill and you'll forget about her, one more kill and you won't be plagued, one more kill and it'll all be over, just one more kill… just one more…

So he killed. Human's bored him- they cried and begged for mercy like he would actually listen, running around in circles like rabbits. Their stench gave him a headache and their useless screaming made his delicate ears ring for days afterward. Third class youkai were no better; although they didn't beg, it was possible they were even dumber than the earth crawling humans. Second class demons were harder, almost to the point where he actually broke out into a sweat before the struggle for life was over. It would quench his thirst for blood for a while, but then her face would return to him, more detailed than the time before, and he would kill again, spilling blood into the earth.

He knew each line that appeared on her face and the way she moved her body before she screamed, he saw her cry out his name every time he shut his eyes, and he felt her struggling against him every goddamned time he moved. Even in sleep he could not escape, the taste of her blood rolling around in his mouth, over his rough tongue and under the sharp points of his ivory fangs –of all the blood he had tasted hers was the sweetest and the hottest. Most of the time he woke up panting and unsatisfied, longing for more than just a few measly drops of blood, a splitting sensation growing in between his narrowed eyes.

It was then he needed to kill. Of course, just pushing down the feelings and laying useless lives to waste wasn't enough –he had to see her. It took him a while to reach the first breaking point; what was he afraid of anyway? She was just a stupid little human with barely enough power to destroy a third class. He was in no way that weak, that powerless. It wouldn't surprise him in the least if he learned that he didn't belong to any class at all, so why was he afraid when there was no reason to be?

He went to her, half to get her out of his mind and half because he knew he was no coward, luring her away from her friends. Though he longed to quell whatever was surging like a wave of the great ocean inside of him, he could do nothing more than put a mark of interest upon her carotid artery. When he left her, he did so partly due to the fact that he needed to kill again but mostly because going any further with her would feel wrong, moving too fast for something that should not be hurried. The beating of her pulse underneath his needy touch became another thing to add to the growing list of why he _needed_ her.

His resolve crumbled quickly after the first breaking point. The second breaking point came sooner than the first and the third followed the second on Obsession's swift wings. He barely slept, and only ate so he could keep on killing, deceiving himself into believing the blood he spilt squashed the growing urges within the confines of his narrow body. During the second breaking point he did not even confront her, only watched her as she laughed, as she frowned, as she read strange scrolls that were unlike any he had ever seen before –which was almost an absurd idea, for he traveled across even the oceans to try and get away from her. The mark upon her called out to him but he stayed in the shadows, blending in as if he was a creature of the dark. Perhaps he truly was.

Somewhere in the dusty corners of his forsaken mind he knew that he could never be rid of her no matter how many times he tried to tell himself otherwise. Never did stretch a long time, and even if he died the next day he would be reborn, the thirst for her and only her would be reincarnated with him. Never to be satiated, he was a tortured being who barely managed to think straight –she was protected by humans that could actually do him harm and drive him away if they really wanted to. Then there was that _thing_ that practically fawned over her, declaring that he would protect her at all costs. If he didn't already see the world in shades washed over in red, those declarations and her shy blush would certainly have done the trick.

Even though he wanted to rip that asshole's tongue out with his claws, he wasn't idiot enough to challenge any high ranking first class youkai while he was so disorientated. Instead he lured her out again, deep into the forest that smelled of her and reeked of her comrades. She was skittish, unsure, and though he could smell fear in her, it was nothing compared to the terror she released when she saw him.

A smirk graced his lips and he languidly crossed his arms over his chest. Though she knew she was already six feet under and in inescapable danger, he watched with mild amusement as her eyes trailed down his form, taking in the wild tangle of his hair, the state of his shredded and blood-stained clothing, the way the sunlight of early afternoon bounced off the light hair of his arms and chest. Her hands gripped a bundle of cloth tightly and when he turned his burning gaze to it, she pulled it to her chest protectively.

He didn't like that.

"Drop it," He snarled. His voice hoarse and jagged like uncut gems. He hadn't really used his vocal chords for anything that didn't go along the lines of feral growling. Talking in the choppy tongue of humans did nothing for the parched feeling that was ever present in the back of his throat. When the girl who was marked with his sign of interest dared to rise against his wishes, he barked at her in a commanding way. His pack had done that to him when he was a disobedient pup –the mark on the girl's neck understood him when she could not and the bundle of cloth and whatever was in it dropped effortlessly from her limp arms.

The corners of his dark pink mouth dropped, his arms uncrossing and stretching out as though to embrace the air. When he took several steps back, still holding out his abnormally long arms, the young human who made his existence both bane and blessing paused for a second. He was a little surprised, but not unpleasantly so –his previous actions should have proved his dominance over her and she should have complied to his obvious request without a second thought. A deep rumble filled his chest. Though she couldn't hear such a low sound over their distance with her human ears, the mark on her neck reacted to his annoyance. Like a shot of demon morphine it dulled her reasoning and the only thing that mattered to her became closing the distance between them.

One brown, scuffed loafer stepped over the bundle, followed by another. The beads that were in the little black pouch on her waist clacked together ominously and still she moved on. Her blood pounded in her ears as she tentatively closed the three or four meter distance between them, pressing her dark head against his chest and shivering as his long arms folded in around her, one wrapping around her waist and the other going around her neck. One of his claws traced little circles on his mark, a mark that looked like some sort of love bite. His heart thundered in her ear, racing almost as quickly as hers.

He didn't trust himself to move –the surrounding forest had gone still and the sun burned in the silence. A trickle of sweat ran down the length of his spine and he didn't know if it was because of the stifling heat or because the girl he obsessed over was at his mercy. The girl's weak, human claws scratched four lines down his stomach and she had the bravery to give a whispering laugh when he reflexively curved away. His resolve bucked once, twice, and then shattered as his emotions came tumbling down. All traces of her fear vanished and that certain something in the certain dusty somewhere of his mind sighed in relief. This was entirely too dangerous to be considered a game of cat and mouse anymore.

He titled her chin up then, and kissed her. She fell against him, her hands clutching at his narrow shoulders, pushing full flush against him. With every second that passed his world became lighter, slowly fading back into color, which he would have seen if his eyes would have been open. The girl was overwhelmed as he seemed to press in on her from every angle, smothering her senses and overriding every irrational moment she ever feared him. Contrary to what others liked to think about her, she rather liked the rush of adrenaline that came from flirting with danger.

Not even thirty meters upwind of the pair, the man who loved Kagome tightened his grip upon the hilt of his sword. He turned around, looking into the grim faces of the youkaitaijiya and her houshi lover, before viciously snarling, "_Now_."


	2. Chapter One

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and co. owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Shounen Sunday, Shogukukan, Viz, etc.

Author's Notes: I'm updating. OMG. This feels so incredibly surreal… (waves hand in front of her and decides that, yes, she's awake) I haven't worked on my Inuyasha fics in forever… So caught up with my Nenbou account that I totally forgot I even wrote het fics…

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One More Kill

Chapter One

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Goshinki would die.

Inuyasha was sure of very few things in life, but in that moment he knew that it was true. He vaguely wondered if he had looked that terrified, that totally hopeless when his mother had been taken from him. He supposed he had. It tore at his soul and his human heart. His blood boiled with familiar anger and all his thoughts were wiped from his mind as a tidal wave of emotions swept through his mind –judging by the look in Goshinki's eyes, he knew each and every one of them.

Eventually, when the incarnate of Naraku fell to Inuyasha's claws, the hanyou wouldn't be feeling much of anything at all other than the burning desire to kill.

"Where those your parents?" He whispered as he gripped the shaft of the Tetsusaiga, hoping against hope that it wasn't. He knew what it was like to lose both a mother and a father, but at the same time… As the boy and the girl nodded, he felt his sharp canines dig into his bottom lip and his heartbeat stumble. He heard Goshinki laugh in that bubbling, gross way of his.

"Ah yes…" Goshinki whispered, his huge tongue rolling out over his yellow teeth. "You want to kill me now. Avenge their parents. That's what you're thinking Inuyasha, I can tell." His red eyes rolled madly in his head and salvia dripped down his jaw. He was definitely not one of Naraku's more pleasing incarnates.

Facing the large monster, his sword in one hand and swung over his shoulder, Inuyasha felt it. The stirring in the air where the winds of the auras from his sword and Goshinki met had a distinctive smell to it and it made his noise twitch. Even if Goshinki could read his mind nothing could save him from the Kaze no Kizu. Nothing short of a miracle, especially now that Inuyasha's insides broiled with the effort it took not to cast the sword aside and feel the satisfying crunch of bones and flesh with his own claws.

The children behind did not move from where they were as Inuyasha opened his mouth in a wordless cry, thinking his movements through as they were played out. He would slice through the area where the two winds collided and unleash all his sorrow and frustration. But in the moment before Inuyasha swung the blade down, Goshinki's large, ugly head darted forward, breaking the delicate balance of the Kaze no Kizu. It was like everything went in slow motion –Inuyasha saw how blue the sky was, how the white bits of fluff lazily swam across it. The smells of fear and blood seemed to rush at him, pushing down on him, combining with the sour, raw smell of Goshinki's sweat.

The purple youkai grasped the sword, his fangs glistening yellow. The Tetsusaiga should have ripped right through the bastard's head, but instead he held it firmly in place with just his jaw. Goshinki bit down, cracking the great sword with just a simple twist of his head. It didn't snap smoothly like normal metal would. It snapped like a twig, a few small chunks raining from its jagged edge. Goshinki spit out his end like it was not a great sword of legend, but merely a chunk of bad meat.

Inuyasha dropped the sword in surprise. It landed there on the ground, a hunk of scrap metal, just a dog's fang now, somewhere on the dried, yellow-brown grass. He heard the sound of Miroku's staff hoops bang together and the startled gasp wrestle its way out of Kagome's throat. He couldn't feel his insides –they had all plummeted down to his feet anyway. No… it couldn't be…

"It's seems the ogre's fang is stronger…" Goshinki gurgled, one of his clawed hands reaching up to tap his skull in the mockery of thought. "Just as Naraku said it would be."

Landing on his feet but staggering from the shock that his beloved Tetsusaiga had just been _broken_ like it were nothing more than a mere toy, a thought crossed his mind. Lately he had been thinking more and more about Kagome, more so than was probably wise when it came to the safety of his heart, but he couldn't help it. Shooting a glance at her to make sure that Goshinki didn't go after her, there was a split second where he was totally unguarded. She was safe but-

He saw Kagome's eyes widen in slight terror as he felt Goshinki's hand land heavily on his side. A few snaps resounded in his ears like the firing of gunshots, the air forced from his chest. A sharp, almost unreal pain accompanied the sounds, worse than when Sesshoumaru ran his arm through his stomach. Goshinki's claws dug into his sides and pierced the skin, nearly ripping the flesh from his bones.

He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed, her voice shriller than it should have been, as she saw the huge jet of red, red blood come from Inuyasha's side. He fell in a boneless heap –he couldn't be dead. He couldn't be. He lived through wounds just as bad; he couldn't be dead. She had heard his ribs snap like chicken bones but he couldn't be dead. She barely heard Goshinki speaking.

"You're dead." The purple monster hissed, his tongue sliding out to lick the blood off his claws. "Your mind is blank. Without your little sword you're just a half-breed. You're quite finished now, aren't you?"

And Kagome snapped, she darted forward, barely knowing that Inuyasha's name was wrenched from her lips, but love did crazy things like that to you. She knew it was dangerous, going so close to Goshinki, an incarnate of Naraku, but she had to help Inuyasha. She needed to hold him and bind his wounds and say that she wasn't still mad at him for going off to find Kikyou.

She would have. She would have done all that and more if Miroku's purple and black body blocked her way. "Stand down Kagome-sama!" He hissed, and he was gripping the sky blue beads on his gauntlet. In battle life and death are always running side by side –the quicker one always wins. Goshinki, of course, heard Miroku's thoughts jumbling in his head, running along in there with Kagome's, and though he so wanted to taste that miko's flesh, his claws came up and ripped into the monk, sending him flying into the air.

"Stupid monk." He spat as Sango and Shippou rushed to Miroku's body, crying for him to wake up. Sango shook his shoulders desperately, uselessly. "You were going to use your Kazaana on me and these Saimyoushou, even if it meant taking your own life. So… noble of you. Don't be in such a hurry to die. I'll get to all of you in due time."

With that he turned his great head to stare at Kagome, his red eyes still mad and rolling, foam still on his muzzle-like jaw. 'Inuyasha…' Kagome thought, quivering. Maybe it was a silent plea for help or the dying thought of her lover as the purple beast loomed over her head, his horns blood stained and the mark of the spider so large on his slim back that the tips of its burned legs wrapped around his huge torso. A deep rumble filled the beast's chest, the spawn of Naraku, and his wild mouth filled with razor sharp teeth that glistened with spit and blood opened, his tongue running over his teeth.

"Stupid girl." He rasped, his voice uncannily human for something so horrible. "Inuyasha's dead." One of his great clawed hands was reaching slowly for her, but she couldn't run, couldn't hide. The body of her protector lay on the ground, his lifeblood spilling out of the wounds on his back. His clothes were beyond repair and his silver hair was stained dark crimson. Her gray eyes opened wider and she held her bow more tightly to her body. She couldn't feel her legs anymore, her heart in her mouth. This was it.

She meant to close her eyes. Really she did, but Goshinki's eyes were so horribly red and his teeth so sharp that she couldn't look away. They didn't concentrate on her but she didn't notice, her knees turning to jelly as his head whipped around and blood flew around her, the horrifying sound of bone crunching and the tearing of muscle tissue and tendon filling the air. Kagome fell to her knees and screamed, screamed so hard as though _she_ were the one who had been cut into.

Because there was Inuyasha, and something was horribly wrong.

No normal person, human, hanyou, or youkai should have been able to move so quickly with those wounds. His voice floated into the back of her mind, his gruff, but somehow gentle promise of protection. Moments ago he had been more than dead, the Tetsusaiga useless and his body crippled. He shouldn't be moving. He shouldn't have been… Laughing?

Kagome's eyes widened. This wasn't right. This wasn't Inuyasha and she knew that straight off- sure the silver hair was still there, covered in his blood and Goshinki's blood, and his cream undershirt had been torn from his already battered body. Not even two days ago the Kaze no Kizu had been thrown back at him and she was sure the wounds of his heart ran even deeper than the ones in his flesh. Kikyou had betrayed them after all, given Kagome's Shikon kakera to Naraku. It was those shards that gave Naraku the power to spawn Goshinki from his being. What an ironic twist of fate.

Waves of cold malice rolled off Inuyasha's body and it made her want to puke. His aura conflicted with her own; she could feel it, see it almost. Normally when she was close to Inuyasha she felt peaceful, calm, relaxed to the point of drifting off when she should have been studying, but now… His name came out of her mouth in a soft moan and she clutched her stomach as though she were going to be sick. Chances were that she was.

"What's wrong Goshinki?" Inuyasha laughed, and now Kagome looked up at him, seeing his long, lanky arms spread out before him, almost as if the left one wasn't broken in several different places. His voice was lower, deeper, rougher, grating like sandpaper against her nerves. "I thought you could predict my every move."

And Goshinki could. He heard every thought that was running through Inuyasha's head, but the thoughts were sporadic, feelings and not coherent things that could be deciphered. "This doesn't make sense!" He hissed, to no one in particular, but Inuyasha heard it and the ears atop his head twitched. His eyes were no longer gold, but a horrible red, so much more deeper than a sham like Goshinki's could ever be, a pool of blood that came from all those slaughtered. The first trill of fear ran down the youkai's spine.

"How the fuck would I know?" Inuyasha snapped, violently snapping his neck to the side so that it cracked. He twisted his wrists in the same violent way and his knuckles popped. His voice was like cold slivers of ice running down Kagome's spine and she wanted to close her ears and cry for the old Inuyasha. "You should be worrying more about saving your sorry hide than what has happened to mine."

Inuyasha shouldn't have been able to move so fast. He lunged at Goshinki and all the demon had time for was to draw a breath and know that this damned _hanyou_ had defeated him in combat. "You half-breed-" he snarled, but Inuyasha's claws were ripping threw him. Goshinki was dead within a few, soul-shattering seconds.

"My blood is purer than yours will ever be, filth." Inuyasha spat softly, hocking a gob of spit onto one of the demon's twisted horns. His blood sang in his veins and he could not feel his wounds, strange as that was. Power like this he had never really felt before, but… now that he thought about it, staring at his too long claws and the black blood covering them, why did he know that this was so wrong? So different from what was normal? He could barely recall his own name let alone remember how and why he was like this.

He had this overwhelming desire to kill more.

It scared him, shook him, rattled him to the core, but the fact still remained; he needed to kill. The back of his throat itched like he was thirsty and his shoulders shook with the effort it took not to do just that.

"Inuyasha?'

He spun around and found that girl, the one he had torn Goshinki away from, staring at him, her hands out in front of her, reaching to touch him. She was pretty, it struck him, her flyaway black hair coming over her shoulders and curling around her breasts. There was blood on her strange, white kimono, the green half cut so indecently short that he suddenly wanted to run his claws down the length of her long legs. Kagome. Her name was Kagome, and how he knew that when he didn't even know his name was beyond him.

Seconds before he looked into her eyes he had been burning for another kill. Now he was burning for something else entirely, the adrenaline still pumping through his veins at an accelerated rate.

Her fingers brushed against his chest. "Don't touch me," he whispered hoarsely, not knowing why. The high of the battle had left him wanting for… for something! He felt it pulsing, throbbing in his head. Maybe it was her heartbeat thundering in his ears. Her fingers were soft and her lips were looking even softer. She did not pull away, only reached up with one hand to touch something on his face. It was hot and wet and sticky. "Don't… I don't know what I'll do…" It was true enough, and why he had to give her fair warning was beyond him. She was special to him, that he knew without even knowing, and if he hurt her it would be as fatal as tearing out one of his own lungs. He just didn't know why.

"What happened to you?" There were tears in the corners of her gray eyes, though he could not know why. The blood was still wet on his body and her hands slipped on it but she was too busy looking at him, feeling his cheeks and staring into his eyes. He couldn't see the ragged gashes upon his cheeks, nor could he see how beautiful and terrible his eyes were.

But she could. She traced those purple tattoos like she were a lover tracing old battle wounds, stared into the red of his eyes and the cornflower blue of his slit-like pupils. The gashes defined his cheekbones, which would be high and aristocratic once he lost his baby fat, and even though his silver hair was tangled and his bangs were matted to his sweaty forehead, she could see it. She could see the proud, powerful family that he had come from, she could see in Inuyasha what she sometimes saw in Sesshoumaru.

It scared her senseless.

His hands snaked up her arms, his long claws snagging on her sleeves and the blood forever staining the white uniform. He was breathing hard and he was staring at the trickle of blood coming from her mouth. Inuyasha had never before been so tender with her, reaching out to swipe away that blood with the pad of his thumb. It wasn't till he stuck his thumb in his mouth and licked away that blood that Kagome realized she was dealing with a very dangerous, very transformed Inuyasha.

She ripped herself away from him, ignoring the sudden flash of surprise and hurt in his eyes, and screamed his subduing spell. It should have sent him crashing to the floor, it should have helped her run away, but the beads only glowed a blinding purple white, sputtered, and died down. Inuyasha howled, ripping his thumb from his mouth, clawing at the rosary like it burned. He fell to his knees and Kagome whispered the spell again, watching as he buckled underneath the spell a second time, falling to his elbows.

It hurt her. She was purposely hurting him but she needed to save him, save herself. She needed to… The final "osuwari" passed her lips and Inuyasha ripped the beads from his neck with such force that the beads and fangs flew more than an arms length away. Kagome's heart stopped and behind her she vaguely heard Shippou say, "But those beads can only be removed by Kagome!"

Inuyasha, still transformed, looked up at her from his vulnerable position, his ears flattened against his head in pain. She winced as she saw the ring of burned skin where the rosary had been, but before she could do anything about it, Inuyasha turned and fled into the forest.

Kagome couldn't do much besides fall to her knees and sob.


End file.
